


Ba dum, ba dum, ba dum, ba dum.

by MoonlitMarauder



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Inspired by The Tell-Tale Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:21:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlitMarauder/pseuds/MoonlitMarauder
Summary: A story in which Harry was ill and slowly slipped into insanity.
Kudos: 4





	Ba dum, ba dum, ba dum, ba dum.

**Author's Note:**

> I was reading Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart and this idea came to me, I apologize for doing this to our lovely Boy Who Lived but it couldn't be helped. 
> 
> I kept all dialogue exactly as it is worded in the original story. The character's belong to JKR and EAP, zero copyright infringement is intended.

_ Ba dum  _

They say I’m mad, that I’m crazy. Just because I have been ill doesn’t mean I’m mad. Why would you say I am mad? Because I’ve lost control of my mind? How can you say I have lost control of my mind when in fact my mind is much stronger? My mind, my feelings, my senses, all more powerful. Oh my hearing, my hearing is the strongest of all. I can hear the thestrals in the forest, and the grindylow deep beneath the surface of the black lake. 

_ Ba dum _

I can’t tell you when I first came up with the idea. I have no reason for doing what I did. I loved the old man, he never hurt me. He didn’t have anything that I wanted. He cared for me like no other had before. I think it was his eyes. He had these twinkling eyes, the kind of eyes that looked at me like he was waiting for me to die. Those eyes made me shiver. They turn my blood to ice. So I decided I will kill the old man, and never see those eyes again.

_ Ba dum  _

A week I planned this, surely a madman cannot plan. Each day I saw the old man I listened to his wisdom, treated him with care, and avoided looking into those eyes.

_ Ba dum _

Each night I traveled to the old man’s quarters, hidden under my father’s invisibility cloak. Each night he was sound asleep, eyes firmly shut. I would slowly remove the cloak bit by bit. I cast a lumos, the soft light from my wand shone on his old wrinkled skin. His eyes never opened. I did this for seven nights. For seven nights his eyes never opened making my work impossible. I needed to kill the eyes, not the old man. If I couldn’t see those eyes shut for the last time they would haunt me until my last day. Those EVIL EYES!

_ Ba dum  _

On the eighth night, I sneaked in like normal, slowly dropping my cloak in the shadows. The old man was asleep, I would wager he was dreaming, but not of me in the darkness, he had no way of knowing I was there. My senses were strong tonight, I was confident I would be successful. The old man stirred in the bed, but I knew he couldn’t not see me. I would have been afraid had the room not been black and dark, as if he used Peruvian instant darkness powder. I continued to pull off my cloak, until it pooled on the floor at my feet. Suddenly the old man cried out as he sat straight up in his bed, “who’s there??!” 

_ Ba dum _

I stood still. Not moving for a whole hour. I listened for any sign of him laying back down, he did no such thing. He sat there in his bed listening-listening for me. I heard a small whimper. I could smell the fear in him, he knew I was there waiting though, he did not know it was me. He knew I was Death, standing there in the shadows.

_ Ba dum  _

I slowly lit a lumos on my wand, casting a soft light across the room. Directly across his twinkling eyes, they were fixed directly on me. I could see nothing else of his face, but those eyes. They turned my blood to ice. My anger increased and built up inside me as those soft blue eyes bore into me. 

_ Ba dum  _

I told you my hearing had become unusually strong as of late. I could hear a sound, almost like a clock ticking away in another room, soft and quick. It was no clock, it was the old man’s heart beating. I stood as quietly as I could, but the sound became louder with each passing second. As the sound grew, so did the man’s fear, along with my anger. But my anger wasn’t the only thing brewing inside of me, as the moment went on,in the silent dark bedroom my fear grew as well. The sound was louder than it had ever been, surely someone else would hear this beating of his frail heart. My time had come! I rushed through his room, crying out “Die! Die!” He gave out a loud scream as I pushed him back on the bed, bringing his bed sheets tightly up over his nose and mouth. I stared directly into those eyes as he feebly tried to fight me off. I smiled, though his heart was still beating, I knew my success was near. His eyes fell shut, my heart elated at my success. The old man was dead. I pulled the bed sheets off of him, and put my ear to his chest, the beating of his heart gone. He was truly dead. His eyes shut forever.

Still you think I’m mad? I was careful in hiding the body in a place no one would find, oh you should have seen it. I took him apart limb by limb, first his head, then each of his arms and finally his legs. I carefully vanished any blood that had dropped on the floor though I was careful to avoid it to begin with. I carefully removed three of the hard stones the floor was made of, and put the body there. I replaced the stones, sealing them with magic, you couldn't even tell they'd been moved. It was bloody brilliant.

Just as I finished my work, I heard the gargoyle door swing open. I had no fear when I stepped to meet whoever it was coming to join me. It was three men and one woman, three Aurors, and Professor McGonagall. One of house elves had heard the old man's scream and called them, these three had come to search the quarters and seeing as I was here, to question me. I told them, the cry was my own, I was supposed to meet the old man here and when I arrived he was no where to be found and his bird had burst into flames right before my very eyes. Scaring the life out of me. I let them search the entire room, encouraged them even. I took them to the old man's bedroom, as if it was my own personal game. I asked them to stay and talk for a while, they happily obliged. 

I spoke with them, quietly and easily. They believed my story, and in return spoke with me in a friendly manner. Although I returned likewise, I desperately wished they would leave. My head felt as if it was splitting open from my skull and my ears had a ringing to them that would go away. I talked more, faster, and they sat and talked. But the sound was became clearer. 

Then I knew that sound was not just inside my head, or my ears. I must have paled at the realization. 

_ Ba dum Ba dum Ba dum _

I spoke louder and faster, and the sound became louder as well. Like a clock ticking away in another room, soft and quick, a sound I knew well. Louder and louder. Yet the men stayed. Louder and louder. I moved around the room, making as much noise as I possibly could, doing anything I could to drown out that terrible sound. Yet Louder and louder it became. I spoke louder, the men still sat and talked, and they smiled at me. How could they possibly not hear?

_ Ba dum Ba dum Ba dum Ba dum Ba dum  _

They knew! They had too have heard. I am absolutely certain of it. It was they who were now playing a game on me. I couldn't bear it any longer, their smiles, or that sound. Louder and louder. I was suffering couldn't they see I was suffering. Louder and louder. I couldn't take it any longer, the sound was deafening, I pointed at the stones beneath their feet and cried. "Yes! Yes, I killed him. Pull up the stones and you shall see! I killed him. But why does his heart not stop beating?! Why does it not stop?!"

_ BadumBadumBadumBadumBadumBadumBadum _


End file.
